alex speier

Man on a mission: This April, David Ortiz is all statements, no questions

It is a fascinating exercise to think back to a few relevant pieces of David Ortiz's recent past.

There was the start of the 2009 season, when the slugger's future was very much in question. He was terrible in April, worse in May, and through the first two months of the year, suspicions grew in volume that he was done as a productive hitter. He owned a .185 average, .284 OBP, .287 slugging mark, .570 OPS and just one homer through almost a third of the season. Questions were being asked about his bat speed, about his age.

He answered them.

But, even though he was once again excellent down the stretch, the questions returned in April 2010, when Ortiz again was terrible out of the gate. He was benched against lefties, relegated to part-time duty, hitting .143/.238/.286/.524 with just one homer through his team's first 23 games in April. Again, questions.

Again, Ortiz answered them.

He was an All-Star in 2010 thanks to a ferocious performance starting in May, and he was even better when returning to the All-Star game in 2011.

This offseason, his future was uncertain. For the first time since signing with the Red Sox in January 2003, Ortiz reached free agency, and so even though he wanted to return to Boston and the Sox wanted him back, it remained to be seen whether the market dynamics would work out to return him to Boston.

They did, and now Ortiz is off to an even better start in 2012 than he was in 2011.

Ortiz is 36, past the expiration date for the productivity of most sluggers. And yet he is amidst a stretch in which he has been as impressive as at virtually any point in his storied career.

The exclamation point was put on that concept on Sunday, when Ortiz went 3-for-4 with two doubles and the game-winning RBI in the Red Sox' 6-4 win over the Rays. With hits in each of his first three at-bats, Ortiz extended his streak of consecutive at-bats with a hit to seven (he had two singles, a double and homer in his last four at-bats on Saturday), tied for the second longest such run in his career. (He had an eight at-bat streak from July 18-20, 2000, and a seven at-bat streak on Sept. 26-27, 2007.)

Yet even more impressive than the streak was the way in which he achieved it. All three of his hits on Sunday came against Rays left-handed phenom Matt Moore, a pitcher who throws effortless mid-90s gas.

First at-bat: Ortiz took an 83 mph slider, then ripped a 94 mph fastball over the head of Ben Zobrist in right for a double.

Second at-bat: Ortiz fouled a first pitch changeup, then rocketed a 96 mph fastball into the teeth of the shift, ripping it with such force that Rays shortstop Sean Rodriguez could not convert his diving attempt at the ball. Single.

Third at-bat: Runner on first, game tied, Ortiz saw a 94 mph first pitch fastball and sent a rocket to straightaway center field for the game-winning double, a ball hit with such force that it seemed capable of knocking down the wall.

Moore is a lefty whose stuff inspires managers to sit their lefties. Ortiz made life look easy against him. On the season, Ortiz is now 6-for-13 (.462 with two doubles, a .500 OBP and 1.115 OPS) against lefties.

"I can't tell if it's a lefty or a righty [facing him]. He has the same at-bat from the first inning to the ninth, regardless of who's throwing, whether it's soft hard, in or out," said Valentine. "It's a determined at-bat. And when you have that kind of determination often you get some success, and he's been very successful."

Hitting coach Dave Magadan has been with Ortiz through the struggles, and so he is in position to smirk at the thought of the questions that surrounded the slugger during his poor starts in 2009 and 2010. And he can afford to make light of the notion that Ortiz, who was a free agent this past offseason for the first time in nine years, faces no guarantees about his future in Boston.

Magadan said Ortiz, who shed quite a bit of weight this offseason and is perhaps leaner and more fit than he has ever been with the Red Sox, looked like a "man on a mission." Asked to define that mission, Magadan mused, "Probably to get another contract, right? And for us to win a lot of games. There's no question that he's a rallying point on the team. When he's going well, he's excited and he's into the game, he's getting big hits, he leads us. It's pretty infectious. I told him a couple years ago, he's got a lot of baseball left in him. He's showing that so far this year."

It is still terribly early, with just 5.5 percent of the season having been consumed. Still, Ortiz has looked terrific to date, hitting .444/.475/.694/1.169 thus far.

"He's been having great swings all season," said first baseman Adrian Gonzalez. "We're really feeding off of him. He's been carrying us."

That development makes it interesting to consider the fleeting questions at the start of this past offseason about Ortiz's future. He was ready to test the market at the start of the free agency period, but ultimately, he elected to accept the Sox's offer of salary arbitration, and thus to ensure that he would be back in Boston in 2012 on a one-year, $14.575 million deal. That was an outcome that the Sox -- including Valentine, whose first act after being introduced as Red Sox manager was to jump on a plane to the Dominican to introduce himself to Ortiz -- wanted to achieve.

"It wasn't as though I had to convince anyone about his importance," said Valentine. "I definitely wanted to let him know that the new guy really wanted him and I think that's basically all I said. That I always appreciated watching him from afar and I know how important he is to any team and I wanted him on mine."

Ortiz is back, and off to as impressive a start as he has ever had. Already, with April now halfway over, he has twice as many hits this month (16) as he had in all of April 2010 (8). He is demolishing pitches from one of the game's most heralded left-handed flamethrowers.

Two and three Aprils ago, questions were asked about whether the Sox might get rid of him. Now, the more relevant inquiry is where the Sox would be without him.

"I think he just likes proving [critics] wrong," said Magadan. "I think it was three years ago that everyone was writing him off and a lot of us here in Boston felt like he still had a lot of baseball left in him. He was doing a lot of mechanical things incorrectly. He was thinking a little bit too much pull. Whenever you see a guy taking batting practice and the ball is coming in 16 mph and he can hit a ball 450 feet in batting practice, he's still got bat speed. I know a lot of that bat speed was questioned a few years back, but we all believed in him and he believed in himself and the rest is history."

Greg and Chris talk with Mike Reiss from ESPN Boston in hour 2 of NFL Sunday to discuss a variety of offseason happenings with the Pats and throughout the league. Greg and Chris also get into the NFL Draft and where Mariota and Winston will go.

Mike Reiss calls the guys to talk about the offseason news for the Pats. He talks about the Pats/Jets tampoering fiasco, free agency, where he sees Ridley and Connolly ending up, if the Patriots would be interested in Reggie Wayne and more.

In the first hour of the show, Greg and Chris discuss the news coming out of the owners' meetings this week and rule changes. Belichick's blow-up over the league not wanting to spend on endzone cameras was well documented and the guys react. They also talk about the Jets ridiculous tampering charges, free agents still lingering out there, where Stevan Ridley will land and the RB position in New England. Dickerson and Price briefly discuss the adventures of Tom Brady before being joined by WEEI.com's Mike Petraglia to talk all things Pats in the offseason.

Flannery joins Mut to break down the Isaiah Thomas trade to Boston and what it means for the Celtics this season and in the future. Paul also chats with Mut about the other deals that happened at the NBA's trading deadline

Mut, Tomase, and Bradford kick things off talking about Shane Victorino taking offense to people reading into some comments he made about trading for Cole Hamels. They also discuss Blake Swihart and how soon he could be up if Christian Vazquez starts the season on the DL.

Joe Kelly joined the Hot Stove show where he talked about being ready for his next spring training start after a biceps ailment forced him out of his last outing, he talks about his NCAA brackets and how teammate Wade Miley has a perfect bracket still.

Peter Chiarelli joined the Sunday Skate crew to talk about the Bruins playoff push heading into the final handful of games of the regular season. Chiarelli talked about avoiding some of the overly negative feedback he gets while realizing that the team does have real issues. He discusses what went down at the trade deadline and if he was happy with the outcome, Lucic having a down year and underperforming, the salary cap and if he considers it as big of an issue as it's been made out to be and what the future holds for the team.

It's a big hour #2 for the Sunday Skate dudes - they talk about the B's defenseman and what the future looks like at that position, with both moves the team can make and younger guys in the AHL. They also get into the Bruins philosophy on bringing guys up and sending them back down and how players deal with that. Finally, the boys are joined by Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli to discuss EVERYTHING.

The Sunday Skate crew gets the show going discussing the Bruins big, impressive victory over the NY Rangers yesterday. What can you take from that game? According to LB - Lyndon Byers - who called the guys from the road, not a lot. LB drops a dime on what was going on with the Rangers yesterday. DJ and Joe discuss Claude's lines and groupings and the importance of Ryan Spooner. They also get into Lucic, his contributions this year and if he can turn things around.

With the Wells report seemingly wrapping up (we hope), Tim and Lou got to talking about possible fines and punishments the Patriots must face. It's possible that the Patriots will face a small fine, but should they take that laying down? The conversation brings out a little passion from BOTH sides.